Wellington Nov 29 (BNA): New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday that the country will transition to coexistence with COVID-19 later this week even though the new variant of Omicron poses a new health threat to the world.
Reuters reported that there have been no cases of the Omicron variant in New Zealand at this point, but the development of the global situation has shown why a cautious approach is needed at the border.
“Omicron is a reminder of the dangers that remain at our borders,” Ardern said at a news conference.
New Zealand has some of the toughest border controls in the world and plans to keep the border closed to most international travelers for another five months.
It also introduced new border measures for travelers from nine South African countries at the weekend, and announced that only nationals of those countries could travel to New Zealand and would have to remain in government quarantine for 14 days.
Ardern said a lot of evidence still needs to be gathered to see the effect of the Omicron variant.
“It might affect our vaccines, but it might not. It might be more severe or it might be milder than delta … we simply don’t know,” Ardern said.
Director-General of Health, Ashley Bloomfield, said authorities are studying whether more work needs to be done at the border to keep Omicron away.
“He’s really just looking to keep him (Omicron) out while we learn more about him,” Bloomfield told reporters at the news conference.
New Zealand is moving to a new “traffic light” system from Friday that classifies areas as red, orange or green depending on their level of exposure to COVID-19 and vaccination rates. Auckland, the epicenter of the country’s Delta virus outbreak, will start in the red, making face masks mandatory and placing restrictions on gatherings in public places.
New Zealand has about 11,000 cases so far and 43 related deaths.
MI